THE ANCIENT FOREST OF CAMALDOLI IN ITALY 



BY NELSON COURTLANDT BROWN 



(WITH PHOTOGRAPHS BY THE AUTHOR) 



TVr ESTLED high in the cool silver fir solitude of the 

 ^^ Tuscan Apennines and far removed from the dust 

 and smoke of the busy cities of central Italy, the ancient 

 hermitage of Eremo di Camaldoli, the home of the learned 

 and devout Romualdensian Order of Benedictine Monks, 

 takes one unwittingly and pleasantly back to more peace- 

 ful times. It seemed a place quite apart from the thrill 

 and throb of a world war when I visited it, but even then 

 the distant dull boom of the heavy cannon along the 

 Piave River 

 could be heard 

 from the high 

 peaks of the 

 mountain 

 heights above 

 the quiet her- 

 mitage. Our 

 high - powered 

 Isotta - Fras 

 c h i n i car 

 seemed quite 

 out of place 

 in these peace- 

 ful surround- 

 ings, as we 

 noisily drew uj) 

 the steep grade 

 and stopped 

 with a rush at. 

 the ancient 

 gateway of the 

 Priory. W e 

 were greeted 

 and welcomed 

 by the quiet 

 Prior, Don Ba- 

 silio Casadei, 

 and he told us 

 we strolled 



AN ANCIENT ITALIAN FOREST 



One of the beautiful walks through the dark cool forests below the ancient Hermitage 

 and near the monastery of Camaldoli. These silver fir trees have been planted by the 

 monks about 50 to 70 years ago and have received constant and skilled attention in 

 accordance with the terms of the gift of the forest to the sainted monk Romualdo, in the 

 year 1012, by the Count Maldolo. 



as 



about the story of the place which has been the objective 



for pilgriins for nearly a thousand years. 



In the wave of things religious which followed the 

 Dark Ages and preceded the Crusades, it had become the 

 custom in Italy for the religious leaders to retire at 

 regular periods to some remote retreat for "meditation 

 and prayer," and many of the noble class, renouncing 

 their worldly life of ease and pleasure, went in voluntary 

 exile or assisted others in establishing sanctuaries far 

 removed from the temptations and distractions of urban 

 life. One of the best-known instances of this "new order 

 of things" was the presentation of the famous Monte 

 Alverna, or LaVerna, as it is often called, to St. Francis 



of Assisi, by Orlando, Count of Chiusi, a noble of large 

 lx)ssessions in the Casentino in 1213, as a retreat for 

 solitude, prayer and meditation. Here St. Francis spent 

 much of his time and one of the features of the activities 

 of his monks and followers was the cultivation of the 

 splendid silver fir and beech forests. Since the year 1224, 

 this fine old forest, which even today, in spite of a some- 

 what long and arduous journey off the railway, attracts 

 its annual quota of many devout pilgrims, has received 



c o n t i n u ous 

 scientific care 

 of its forests 

 and today is 

 one of the mu- 

 nicipal forests 

 of the city of 

 Florence with 

 a trained for- 

 ester in charge. 

 The forest of 

 La Verna is 

 s o m e t i m e s 

 referred to as 

 the oldest 

 known exam- 

 ple of continu- 

 o u s forestry 

 practice. Re- 

 cords have 

 shown, h o w - 

 ever, accord- 

 ing to Dr. Egi- 

 dio Ferrari, an 

 Italian Govern- 

 ment forester, 

 and the Prior 

 Don Basilio, 

 that the beau- 

 tiful forest of 

 Eremo di Camaldoli is not only the oldest example of 

 continuous culture under scientific forestry methods, but 

 it served its highest usefulness in helping to meet the 

 great war emergency by supplying much needed timbers 

 and lumber for the front. It seemed that for this very 

 contingency, indeed, it had stored up a great forest re- 

 serve and fine old speciinens of silver fir from 100 to 200 

 years of age were felled to meet the urgent call. And 

 still more glorious, its future records will show to an 

 admiring posterity, how of a normal staff of fifty monks, 

 all but nine served their country and humanity by re- 

 pelling the Austrian invader at the front. 



